Category: Reviews – Audio

Glorious metal in all its earthly forms, compressed onto shiny plastic discs or into digital files. Which ones will become the soundtrack to your life?

  • The Devil’s Blood – The Time of No Time Evermore

    What makes The Devil’s Blood successful is its masterful gift for restraint. The band knows how to hold back, painting a partial musical portrait consisting solely of shadows and allowing the listener to infer the details using that most horrifying of artists: the imagination. Tate Bengston gives us a great review of the latest output…

  • Sonic Medusa – demo

    By Gruesome Greg Sonic Medusa is a brand-new quartet of heavy rock veterans like Greg Rogers of The Obsessed and Tom Five, who played in a sludge-metal band called Angel Rot—before joining White Zombie.  (Their other guitar player has him beat though. He played with Axl in the Hollywood Rose days…) When you can get…

  • Northern – Northern

    By Cara Cross I was introduced to Victoria B.C.’s Northern a couple weeks ago when they opened for Wolves in the Throne Room. The instrumental three-piece blew my socks off, and I immediately picked up a copy of their debut CD. Their musical style invites one to draw comparisons to post-metal acts like Isis, Pelican…

  • Hirax – Noise, Chaos, War

    By Jason Wellwood This is a ‘catchup’ album of sorts for those of us who didn’t pick up the EP’s released in 2001, 2006 and 2007 (Barrage of Noise, Assassins of War, Chaos and Brutality respectively). While Hirax never made as much splash with mainstream audiences as ‘The Big Four’ did, they definitely hold down…

  • God Ox – Abyssal Gigantism

    By Gruesome Greg Despite the most pretentious band bio I’ve seen in a little while, I decided to check out NYC’s God Ox.  These guys have clearly invested in a good dictionary and/or thesaurus, with song titles such as “Benevolent Severity,” “Pestilent Dogmata” and “The Ontological Argument for the Existence of the Lord God.”  Nevertheless,…

  • Amorphis – Magic & Mayhem [Tales From The Early Years]

    There are always going to be purists who cry foul when a band re-records a favourite song but, really, it’s the band’s song to do with as they will. On Magic & Mayhem though, I don’t see many fans crying foul, in fact, I think the opposite is true. This album shines from top to…

  • Vilipend – Northern Hostility:Live in Ajax

    Essentially, while Vilipend has a pristine track record thanks to creative dexterity and oppressive heaviness fuelled by overt originality, when experiencing the vitriol, embittered passion and tormented rage of an act such as this through a live album, one really feels the self-abuse, throat-tearing screams and constricting viciousness.

  • Rhapsody of Fire – The Cold Embrace of Fear: A Dark Romantic Symphony

    Rhapsody of Fire have spared no expense on this EP, treating it with the same amount of care and detail that they give their full length releases: great story line, fully orchestrated songs, huge production, choirs, blazing guitars, and, of course, Christopher Lee’s voice.

  • Weedeater – Jason… The Dragon

    A little on the short side, and lacking in any memorable tunes, Jason… The Dragon is only somewhat satisfying. That being said, I won’t object to another Weedeater tour, provided that it stops somewhere close by.

  • Wino – Adrift

    Although I’ve got no grading scale or any reference points when it comes to acoustic folk, I will say that if you worship Wino, you’ll want this.